Tibetan Buddhists believe all beings come to this present life from a previous one and that they will be reborn again after death. Several hundred special reincarnational lineages have been identified in Tibet, the most respected being that of the Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas have played a dominant role in Tibetan politics in addition to their spiritual leadership. Dalai Lamas, or their regents, governed much of the Tibetan plateau with varying degrees of autonomy from the 17th century until China occupied Tibet in But he fled his homeland in after a Tibetan rebellion against Chinese rule was forcefully repressed.
Tibet has undergone sweeping changes in his absence. For more than 60 years, the Dalai Lama has lived in a compound with a garden where he walks each morning if it is not raining, near a Tibetan Buddhist temple in Dharamshala, a picturesque Himalayan hill station in northern India. The town hosts the Central Tibetan Administration, also known as the Tibetan government in exile, which represents hundreds of thousands of Tibetans who have fled their homeland since it was annexed by China.
Tibetan exiles set fire to Chinese goods in Dharamshala in after a crackdown by Chinese troops against protests in Tibet. Credit: AP. I first encountered the Dalai Lama at a difficult moment for him and the Tibetan people. It was March and anti-China protests inside Tibet had turned violent, attracting global media attention. The press conference was sometimes tense as reporters questioned why he was not being more critical of the repressive tactics being used by Chinese authorities inside Tibet.
When my turn came, the Dalai Lama held my hand for some time and remarked on how far I had come to attend. At one point, the Dalai Lama leant forward in his chair, fixed me with an intense gaze and described the predicament facing all Tibetans campaigning for greater autonomy for their homeland.
It can only express the truth. Our only weapon, our only strength, is justice and truth. The Dalai Lama during a press conference in Dharamshala in March The conclusion of that press conference was different to any I have experienced.
The Dalai Lama stayed on to greet his inquisitors one at a time. With charm and grace, he shook hands, joked and chatted. Reporters now jostled to meet the famous monk they had been grilling minutes earlier. I left with a deeper appreciation of why this Dalai Lama is so widely admired.
An attendant carries the new Dalai Lama as he prepares to journey across the Himalayas to Lhasa, Tibet. Years later, he would flee to north India. Credit: Getty Images. When a Dalai Lama dies — or even before their death — a successor is found rather than chosen.
Do gorge on the delicious momos dumplings that are available in plenty. People who have had had the good fortune of meeting the Dalai Lama describe the experience as profound and insightful, something they have been blessed to have encountered.
If you desire to have a meeting with the Dalai Lama, here is how to go about it. Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh is where the Dalai Lama resides. He has been living here since , when he was forced to escape into exile after the brutal suppression of Tibetan national uprising by the Chinese troops. Now 82 years of age, Dalai Lama still makes it a point to meet his followers, and impart Buddhist philosophies and teachings.
Read More: A weekend in Dharamshala. Private audiences with the Dalai Lama are usually scheduled thrice a week — on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. To have a private audience, you have to send an application consisting detailed information of yourself and the specific reasons as to why you wish to meet His Holiness.
Applications are called for well in advance, and each application are minutely screened. Last minute applications may not be entertained. Throughout the year, the Dalai Lama speaks at different public events in India and abroad, where you can meet him. The official website www. Most events in India come free of cost, but it is usually chargeable abroad.
His Holiness never charges for his lectures or discourses. However, when the event is organised by third parties, they charge a minimum entrance fee so that the travel costs are covered. People can directly get in touch with the organizers for the tickets. So, do check out the event dates and plan your trip accordingly. You can write to the office of Dalai Lama seeking a direct and exclusive audience with his Holiness. The son of a farmer, the Dalai Lama was born in a small hamlet in northeastern Tibet, where just 20 families struggled to make a living from the land.
As a child, he recognized a senior lama who had disguised himself to observe the local children, and successfully identified a number of items belonging to the 13th Dalai Lama.
In his autobiography, "My Land and My People," the Dalai Lama wrote that he was handed sets of identical or similar items -- including rosaries, walking sticks and drums -- one of which had belonged to the previous incarnation and one which was ordinary. In every case, he chose the correct one. But the Dalai Lama's reincarnation hasn't always been found in Tibet.
What the Tibetan government-in-exile might do. At the moment, there are no official instructions laying out how the Dalai Lama's reincarnation will take place, if he dies before returning to Tibet. But in that significant statement, the 14th Dalai Lama said that "the person who reincarnates has sole legitimate authority over where and how he or she takes rebirth and how that reincarnation is to be recognized. The Dalai Lama added that if he chose to reincarnate, the responsibility for finding the 15th Dalai Lama will rest on the Gaden Phodrang Trust, a India-based group he founded after going into exile to preserve and promote Tibetan culture and support the Tibetan people.
The Dalai Lama said that his reincarnation should be carried out "in accordance with past tradition. CNN reached out to the Gaden Phodrang Trust to see if new instructions had been issued but did not receive a reply.
One thing that has become increasingly clear is that the reincarnation is unlikely to take place in Tibet, an area the Gaden Phodrang Trust cannot even access -- especially after the contested reincarnation of the Panchen Lama in the s. Following the death of the 10th Panchen Lama, the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama named Tibetan child Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as his colleague's reincarnation.
Gamble, from La Trobe University, said that during the selection process, the Tibetan government-in-exile was secretly in contact with people in Tibet which allowed it to find the reincarnation in a traditional manner. But three days after he was chosen, according to the US government, Gedhun and his family were disappeared by the CCP, which then appointed an alternative Panchen Lama.
Gedhun hasn't been seen in public since. What the Tibetans-in-exile learned from that experience, said Gamble, is "if you recognize someone inside the PRC and they're really high level, they won't be able to get them out. What the Chinese government will do. The Chinese government has very publicly telegraphed its intentions for the Dalai Lama's reincarnation -- it will take place in Tibet and it will be in accordance with Beijing's wishes.
In , the Chinese government's State Religious Affairs Bureau published a document which laid out "management measures" for the reincarnation of living Tibetan Buddhas. The document said that the reincarnations of Tibetan religious figures must be approved by Chinese government authorities, and those with "particularly great impact" must be approved by the State Council, China's top civil administration body currently led by Premier Li Keqiang.
Dalai Lama's reincarnation must comply with China's laws, Communist Party says. There are few specifics about the process of reincarnation in the Chinese government's document, except to recognize the so-called "golden urn" process, which was introduced into Tibet by the Qing Dynasty in the s and sees the names of potential child candidates put into a small golden urn and selected at random.
According to Chinese state-run media, it was put in place to help "eliminate corrupt practices" in the choice of reincarnations. However, in his statement , the Dalai Lama said the golden urn was only used to "humor" the Qing emperors, and the reincarnations were already chosen before the names were drawn. The urn was not used in the 14th Dalai Lama's reincarnation.
An authoritative circle.
0コメント